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A
by-election (occasionally also spelled
"bye-election", and known in the United States as a special election) is an
election held to fill a political office
that has become vacant between regularly scheduled
elections. Usually this occurs when the incumbent has died
or resigned, but it may also occur when the
incumbent becomes ineligible to continue in office, for example
because of a recall or a
sufficiently serious criminal conviction. By-elections have also
been called as a result of a constituency election being
invalidated due to voting irregularities.

Historically, members of some parliaments were required to seek
re-election upon being appointed to a ministerial post. The subsequent
by-elections were termed ministerial by-elections.
These by-elections were usually a formality as they were normally,
but not always, uncontested by opposition parties. The requirement
for MPs to resign their seats and re-offer upon being appointed to
Cabinet has been done away with was done away with in most
Westminster systems by the mid-20th century as an
anachronism.

In multi-member constituencies

When one seat in a proportional representation
constituency becomes vacant, the consequences vary. For example, a
by-election may be held to fill just the vacancy or all the seats
in the constituency become up for grabs in the by-election
held.

Alternatives to holding a by-election include
having the most-voted losing candidate for the previous election
fill the vacancy (excluding disqualified persons), as in Tasmania or the
Australian
Capital Territory, keeping the seat vacant until the next general election or nominating another
candidate with the same affiliation as the one whose seat has
become vacant – typically, in list systems, the next candidate on
the party list. For the Australian Senate (where each State
forms a multi-seat constituency voting by single transferable vote), the
State Parliament appoints a replacement; however, in 1977 a
referendum amended the Constitution to require that the person
appointed must belong to the same political party (if any) as the
Senator originally elected to that seat.

Consequences

The vast majority of by-elections are unimportant and voter turnouts are seldom comparable with
general elections. The governing party normally has a solid cushion
so that losing a handful of seats would not affect their position.
Because by-elections usually have little influence on the general
governance, voters feel freer to elect smaller fringe parties.
Parties on both the far right-wing and
the far left-wing tend to do better in
by-elections than in general
elections.

By-elections can also be important if a minority party needs to
gain one or more seats in order to gain official party status or the balance of power in a minority or coalition
situation. For example, Andrea
Horwath's win in an Ontario provincial
by-election in 2004 allowed the Ontario NDP to regain official
party status with important results in terms of parliamentary
privileges and funding.

As harbingers and breakthroughs

Though governing parties are generally expected to fare less well
in by-elections than in general elections, the swing in party support in a by-election
compared to the previous election is often taken as an indicator of
changes in general party support. A pronounced negative swing
against a party over several by-elections may add to pressure for a
change in party policy or even a change in leader, particularly
when an opposition party does worse than expected or when the swing
against a governing party is so pronounced as to suggest its
impending defeat in the next general election. By-election upsets
can also have a psychological impact by creating a sense of
momentum for one party or a sense of impending defeat for a
government. Deborah Grey's 1989
by-election victory in Beaver River was seen as
evidence that the newly formed Reform Party of Canada would be a
serious political contender and that it posed a serious political
threat for the ruling Progressive Conservatives. It also
provided important momentum for the new party. Similarly, the upset
1960 by-election victory of Walter
Pitman in Peterborough as a
"New Party" candidate was seen as
a significant boost for the movement to replace the Co-operative Commonwealth
Federation with an unnamed "New Party" which would be
integrated with the labour movement. Pitman's candidacy in a riding
in which the CCF was traditionally weak was seen as a test of this
concept and his upset victory was used to convince the CCF and the
labour movement to proceed with the founding of the New Democratic Party of
Canada.

By-elections may occur singly, or in small bunches, especially if
the authority responsible for calling them has discretion over the
timing and can procrastinate. They are sometimes bunched to save
money as holding multiple by-elections is likely to cost more than
holding a by-election to fill the vacancies all at once.
In
Canada, in 1978, 15 by-elections were held on a single
date, restoring the House of Commons to 264 members. The
media called it a "mini-election", a test of the Liberal
government's popularity with a general election due in less than a
year. The 15 districts stretched from Newfoundland to British
Columbia, and produced some unexpected results, for example, an NDP
candidate winning in Newfoundland for the first time.

Party leaders and media commentators often point to by-election
victories as important signals, but very often by-elections hinge
far more on local issues and the charisma of the candidates
(especially under single-seat constituency systems) than on
national issues or how the voters feel about the governing party.
Nonetheless it can be shown historically that a main opposition party which performs
consistently poorly in by-elections is unlikely to be a serious
contender for power at the subsequent general election.

New blood

By-elections may be used as a means for a political party,
particularly a governing party, to bring star candidates into parliament. In
Commonwealth parliamentary systems it is generally constitutional
convention that cabinet ministers should have a seat in parliament,
particularly in the lower house. Governments have, from time to
time, appointed Cabinet ministers who do not have seats in
parliament with the understanding that they will seek a seat as
soon as possible. If no vacancy exists due to a death or
resignation, political parties will sometimes persuade a sitting MP
to give up their seat in order to allow a cabinet minister (or
prospective minister) an opportunity to contest a by-election.
Similarly, political parties whether or not they are in government
may also persuade a sitting MP to step aside if the party leader or
another leading party member is in need for a seat. Parties may
also use a vacancy that occurred without such persuasion as an
opportunity to seek out star candidates in order to bolster their
front bench.

Usually, it is an MP in a safe seat that
is persuaded to step aside. Consequently, an upset victory by the
non-incumbent party in such a by-election can have a serious impact
such as the loss of a cabinet minister or the loss of a party
leader.

Upsets

In Canada, the most recent example of a cabinet minister appointed
from outside of parliament having to resign after losing a
by-election was in 1975 when Minister of Communications Pierre Juneau was appointed to Pierre Trudeau's Liberal cabinet directly
from the private sector and tried to enter parliament through a
by-election in Hochelaga. Juneau was upset
by the Conservative candidate and resigned from cabinet ten days
after his by-election defeat. Most famously in Canada, General
Andrew McNaughton was appointed to
Cabinet as Minister of Defence on November 1, 1944 without having a
seat in parliament after his predecessor resigned during the
Conscription Crisis of
1944. A by-election was arranged in Grey
North which the opposition Progressive Conservative party
contested. The major campaign issue became the government's policy
of "limited conscription" which McNaughton supported and which the
Conservatives counterposed with a call for "full conscription".
McNaughton was upset in the February 5, 1945 by-election. As a
result, with confidence in his government undermined, Prime
Minister William Lyon
Mackenzie King called the 1945 federal election in
order to several weeks later when he had originally intended to
wait until after the end of World War
II. McNaughton sought a seat in the federal election and
resigned after he was again defeated.

In 1942, new Conservative Party leader Arthur Meighen sought to enter the Canadian
House of Commons through a by-election in York South. His surprise defeat at the hand of
Joseph Noseworthy of the Co-operative Commonwealth
Federation ended his political career and may also have been a
factor in the Conservative Party's decision to move to the left and
rebrand itself the Progressive Conservative Party under Meighen's
replacement. Noseworthy's victory was also a significant
breakthrough for the CCF giving it credibility as a national party
where it has previously been seen as a Western Canadian regional
protest party.

The sole exception to this pattern was the Newry and Armagh
by-election, where Seamus Mallon of
the Irish nationalist and pro
Anglo-Irish Agreement Social Democratic and Labour
Party (SDLP) was able to take the seat. The results of the
fifteen by-elections were cited by Unionists as a rejection of the
Agreement by the Northern Irish electorate, but the action did not
succeed in convincing the government of Margaret Thatcher to repeal the
accord.